Fall is Both a State of Mind and a State of Grace
Fall is such a transitional season, it is the bridge between summer and winter for a reason
Fall is more than just another season. It is both a state of mind and a state of grace. It is like a fresh new start to rediscover ourselves and celebrate our traditions, from Halloween and scary costumes to a spiritual voyage of the heart, the mind, and the soul as we brace for the rigors of winter.
Because winter is coming, we all know that. It makes the fall bittersweet because while we can enjoy all the pomp and pageantry, the fun and games, the celebrations and traditions, we all know it can’t last.
Fall is the bridge between summer and winter, and summer is gone and winter is lurking, with all its icy malevolence and spiteful storms at the end of that bridge.
We all know this, and we all resist it as best we can, but deep in our hearts, we know it is inevitable.
That makes fall even more precious, a treasure beyond measure to clutch to our bodies, a last hurrah, a final farewell.
Bob Dylan once sang “The wintertime is coming, the windows are filled with frost…I went to tell everybody, but I could not get across…”
It is a tribute to the human spirit and one that we all embrace. The planet we live on is hurtling around the sun at approximately 66,000 mph.
During that year, down here on earth, we go through four separate and distinct seasons, and each one has its own allures and attractions.
We bear mute testimony to this every season as we witness and savor its own optimistic, unscalable heights and bottomless depths, its own warmth and pleasures, its own last chances and opportunities, and its own final countdown to misery and final acceptance of darkness.
Yet we as human beings are bigger and better than all that, stronger and more resilient, braver and faster to adjust. For every reason, for every season we face it and take it with scarcely a second thought.
It is our personal reality, it is our life, it is our destiny…
So much happens in our personal lives while the earth makes its stately progress in its orbit around the sun. We are born and we die, we laugh and we cry, we marry and divorce, and we take it all as a matter of course.
It is the way it is, it is the way it always was, and it is the way it will always be if we don’t upset the beautiful, harmonious balance of nature.
Fall is extra special and the favorite season for most people because we all know that as beautiful and wondrous, as fragile and precious as it is, we need to cherish it, to nurture it, to hang onto it as long as we can.
Those brisk fall mornings walking in the park, enjoying the heady feel of the crisp clean air hitting our lungs, and the celebrations like Halloween and Thanksgiving we use as place markers to remind us of the passage of time. All hallmarks of autumn.
We have left behind the heat and passion of the summer but are not quite ready for the icy embrace of winter. Yet it too is necessary, and some people actually love winter.
Others may prefer the advent of spring as the awakening and rebirth of all of us, the time of hibernating animals and dormant plants springing to life.
Spring is a brand new, ever-hopeful bridge between winter and summer, just as fall is the bridge between summer and winter.
It all fits together so perfectly, so seamlessly, so naturally!
It is a wonder to behold and a joy to discover and realize the interrelated synchronicity of all things, the connection between us and our planet, and the beautiful symmetry of it all.
We are all living now in a special state of grace, and we need to enjoy the peace of mind this brings to us all. The fall is the best season to be alive, to thrive and prosper, and to best accept and enjoy the inexorable passage of time. We are all in this together because we need each other.
It was the worst of times, it was the best of times. We are all connected…